Ask a Game Dev

APRIL 18, 2025

One person on the left fighting another on the right, with health bars up top? MMORPG/Online game. Is there manipulation of blocks involved? Top-down view with lots of little selectable things? Race tracks and vehicles? Skybox in first person? Flight sim. Plastic instrument? An 80s classic that old people would recognize (e.g.

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Retail Feature Racing First person 52

Game Refinery

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

As well as embarking on an epic Viking voyage and a wide variety of fights, players tend to a kingdom by growing crops and upgrading buildings with construction and management sim mechanics. As an example, Granblue Fantasy is an RPG with heavy social ements, while Puzzle & Dragons is a Match3 puzzle game.

Mobile Gaming 247

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Game Developer 247

Raph Koster

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

I thought it would be interesting to contrast this to Word Dad , a puzzle game made by my friend, master game designer John Cutter. A brief aside on puzzles All three of these are more correctly called puzzles, of course. This means that really, puzzles and games are terms that are matters of degree, not kind.

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Puzzle Build Games Data 112

Game Refinery

APRIL 6, 2023

As an example, a puzzle minigame might feature consumable boosters or rewarded ads to help players in the levels, while a more complex standalone minigame might introduce a completely new monetized meta layer. Introducing minigames into your game also provides an opportunity to add new monetization elements.

Mechanics 239

Mechanics Mobile Mobile Puzzle 239

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 14, 2020

Alrighty then, lets kick off the predictions with the Puzzle genre! Puzzle Games Continued to Grow. Puzzle genre is the second largest, after strategy games, on mobile in terms of in-app purchases. Last year Puzzle games generated a whopping $4.5Bn in IAP revenues while growing 18% year-on-year.

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Puzzle Games Tile Mobile 52

Game Refinery

MARCH 20, 2025

Weve seen everything from the likes of PUBG x Jujustu Kaisen, to Puzzles & Dragons x Demon Slayer, Fortnite x Naruto, and Grand Summoners x One Punch Manto name a few historic examples. To name just a few, these include Fortnite (Battle Royale), Top War (4X Strategy), Puzzles & Dragons (Match3), and Tower of Fantasy (MMORPG).

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Animation Animation Mobile Gaming Mobile 130

Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 3, 2019

The reason for this acquisition was the success of Small Giant’s hit game, Empires & Puzzles. Since mid 2017, Empires & Puzzles has raked in $260M in net revenues with only 34M installs. Empires and Puzzles regularly takes the top spot in Puzzle RPG category in the West (when Dokkan is having a post event hangover).

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Feature Build Balance 52

The Bottom Feeder

JUNE 12, 2024

Basically, power gamers (Spike), people who want to solve puzzles and make useless things useful (Johnny), and people who just like big, impressive things (Timmy). Happily, there are players who get all their fun from solving puzzles like that. I found fights in BG3 where it became really hard to target the high-up enemies.

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Fighting Writing Puzzle Terrain 98

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Solo dev Dr.Kucho fights for true video games: “People play guided tours now” Mario Malagrino , creator of the recently released game Crude , knows exactly why he is working solo. “My I’m not good with story telling or puzzle design, so combining some expertise would be nice.” I enjoyed what I was doing very much.

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Development Dev Indy Game Developer 257

Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 20, 2020

Riot’s Team Fight Tactics (TFT) was launched quickly to catch the emerging auto-chess genre that was gaining popularity as a mod on Twitch. Till date Team Fight Tactics has reached bit over 11M installs. A new puzzle for the active community to solve. In years, we expect Team Fight Tactics to grow into a Billion Dollar game.

Fighting 52

Fighting Games Mechanics Balance 52

Logic Simplified

JULY 11, 2023

9 Most Popular Video Game Genres Dominating the Gaming Market Adventure Games Adventure games feature minimal fighting and rely rather on narrative. Players typically interact with the environment and other characters in order to solve puzzles containing clues to advance in the gameplay. Which gaming genres should you choose?

Racing 65

Racing Simulation Puzzle Games 65

Radiator Blog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

I also tried to tackle another design weakness of mine -- I rely a lot on fights with shotguns. With a well-timed low gravity jump, the player can now escape the arena and fight through the scientists' lab to escape in a way that evokes Portal. The water is now boring and blue.

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Playtesting Fighting Scripting Beta 130

iHobo

MARCH 8, 2023

Suppose you have a fighting game. The problem-focussed player who gets beaten is going to look at it as a puzzle to solve. The ubiquity of puzzle-solving play in videogames isn't an accident. The problem-solving motive is after the same thing as the victory-motive: but it goes about it in a completely different way.

Puzzle 65

Puzzle Game Designer Game Design Fighting 65

Game Refinery

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Similar to the mechanics of Genshin Impact, the player explores the vast open-world by climbing on the walls, swimming in the rivers, gliding in the skies, wiping out enemies, and solving different kinds of puzzles. As a typical MMORPG feature, players can also challenge others for an open-world fight. Guild adds up to social features.

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Fantasy Co-op Open World Feature 130

Game Refinery

OCTOBER 5, 2023

The game also features over 500,000 tactical puzzles alongside various interactive lessons and videos to help players improve their skills. Fans could also access several Clash of Clans and Clash Royale-themed puzzle minigames on the Chess.com website. Paid membership also removes in-game ads for a more seamless experience.

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Mobile Mobile Esports Games 130

GamesIndustry.biz

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

(The following is an excerpt from Kyle Orland's upcoming book Minesweeper, an in-depth look at the history and evolution of the classic puzzle game that has been a mainstay of Microsoft's since it came pre-installed with every copy of Windows 3.1. Eastern on March 7.)

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Fighting Games Development 52

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

There's a Portal-like moment where you escape the puzzle. The high visual polish and stellar production values adorn a solid but predictable gameplay loop: you fight through dungeons with random rooms / enemies, collect resources, and bring them back to your hub to build up your village and its inhabitants.

Indy 130

Indy Film Games Point and Click 130

Sirlin

AUGUST 8, 2018

It covers most of my career, including work on Street Fighter HD Remix, Puzzle Fighter, almost Street Fighter 4, Yomi, Codex, and FantasyStrike. You will even learn what a "kara throw" is in fighting games, if you don't already know. Designer Notes Episode 41, DAVID SIRLIN - PART 1

Puzzle 40

Puzzle Fighting Game Design Game Designer 40

The Bottom Feeder

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

That fight really stomped me." "Do So I went onto Twitch and YouTube and watched how Serious Gamerz did the hard fights. The fights were just too fast and chaotic for anything else, especially against the tough bosses. Then they went back to standard tactics and concentrating on the fight. Two problems with this.

Fighting 95

Fighting Games Balance Writing 95

Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 19, 2022

You can't manually choose to target, because that part of the puzzle is solved by the algorithm. Informed of this insight, Nexter’s creative marketing team made hugely successful ads that appeal more to the thinking side of Hero Wars, not the fighting side. “In most app advertising inventories, you do not have many levers to pull.

Mobile 59

Mobile Mobile AI Advertising 59

Sirlin

JUNE 13, 2015

I want to show you some of what I'm working (Codex, Flowchart, and a Fighting game) and tell you about Patreon. Codex, Flowchart, and now.the Fantasy Strike fighting game (yes, really!). The best description I've had of the game from player so far has been, "Wow this feels like playing a fighting game really badly!"

Fighting 52

Fighting Fantasy Art Build 52

Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Clash Quest is Supercell’s most recent attempt at disrupting the puzzle category through titles like Smash Land , Spooky Pop, and Hay Day Pop , each of them trying to achieve success from different angles. Clash Quest 101 In terms of gameplay, Clash Quest can be categorized as a blast-based midcore Puzzle game with some RPG components.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Mechanics Content Dev 52

Ask a Game Dev

DECEMBER 8, 2022

This usually means content like cinematics, plotted narrative, voiced lines, action set pieces, puzzles, quick time events, scripted boss fights, that sort of thing. ALT To answer your second question, the inverse of this - the least devtime-efficient content - is game content that is primarily single-use.

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Dev Content Cinematics Puzzle 52

Game Daily

OCTOBER 3, 2023

“You can solve Lego puzzles or build your own creations on any flat surface in your room. Meta has teamed up with various entertainment providers to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming, NBA games, and professional ring fighting tournaments to Quest.

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Retail Pixel Technology Feature 98

Brand Game Development

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

On the other hand, playing Tasty Humans has short turns, which helps the game stay snappy even though it’s a brain-burny puzzle game. Tasty Humans is about monsters fighting humans instead of the other way around, which gets a sick laugh out of everybody who sees the game. The mere threat is usually enough to keep the game going.

Game Designer 130

Game Designer Game Design Tile Games 130

Game Refinery

OCTOBER 26, 2023

They help each other progress through the game, participate in co-op events, and fight other guilds for world map control. In terms of monetization, the game has a traditional casual puzzle game IAP model combined with relatively heavy ad monetization.

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Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Co-op 241

The Bottom Feeder

OCTOBER 9, 2024

During those hours of walking and fighting (and, in Baldur's Gate 3, searching 20000 identical crates), players will forget a ton of story. Portal was a solid 2 hour puzzle game. Each chapter had exactly one very memorable, hateable villain to fight. So to make your story memorable, keep it simple. Remember Persona 5 ?

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Writing Games Art Advertising 88

Big Games

AUGUST 19, 2021

Adventure: The games of this type have reflex testing and puzzle gameplay. Strategy: Games in this genre challenge the mind with strategic dilemmas, tactical puzzles, and shootouts. The urge to complete the task, fight the obstacles and rescue the victims gives mere satisfaction to the players.

Mobile Gaming 52

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Games 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 29, 2024

Another example is the 'Puzzles' collection mechanics, where the player farms puzzle pieces in hard match-3 levels to assemble pictures. So we decided to loop the puzzles at the same time as adding new ones. We have human characters fighting against time anomalies in a Victorian-era setting.

Mechanics 98

Mechanics Content Puzzle Games 98

Played with Fire

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

Whether you’re fighting in a medieval battle or exploring the surface of Mars, VR lets you completely disconnect from the physical world and enter a computer-generated one. Imagine playing a game where the physical world around you is combined with virtual enemies, objects, or puzzles. So, which do you use more VR or AR?

Technology 52

Technology Simulation Educational Education 52

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 18, 2017

Dylan: Chess is such a fantastic example: it’s really a geometric puzzle. is about scavenging the remnants of a very, very old war and using them to fight in an endless cycle of retaliation. Dylan: Art direction and component choices are a tough piece of the puzzle. Such a waste of human potential!

Mechanics 130

Mechanics Art Games Puzzle 130

Deconstructor of Fun

APRIL 12, 2023

Rush Wars was the PvE version of Clash Royale in the Boom Beach setting Clash Quest was Legend of Solgard in the Clash setting Hay Day Pop was a puzzle and decorate game with Hay Day IP Everdale is a Hay Day Derby feature as a game Clash Mini is the most innovative one. It’s Team Fight Tactics for casuals.

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Mobile Mobile Engine Engineering 118

Game Daily

AUGUST 23, 2023

” Little Nightmares 3 Bandai Namco dropped an announcement trailer for the third installment in the distinctive platform, puzzle, and stealth series. Mortal Kombat 1 We’re only a few weeks away from the release of the 12th main installment in the 80 million-selling fighting franchise (September 19).

Co-op 52

Co-op Puzzle Writing Horror 52

Greenheart Games

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

A bit of research brought up a story from a year ago ( source ) that puts the blame on Google’s algorithm for fighting fake reviews and concluding that genuine reviews are also deleted by it as collateral damage. It looked like Google was removing genuine reviews from our Store page, en masse. We had just lost over 400.

Puzzle 52

Puzzle Culling Content Writing 52

Sirlin

OCTOBER 22, 2019

In some games I’ve worked on, I’m one of the experts (Fantasy Strike, Street Fighter HD Remix, Puzzle Fighter HD Remix). In other games, I’m not at all (Yomi, Puzzle Strike, Kongai) so I rely on players who have expert knowledge about balance. But…we did it.

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Balance Fantasy Data Games 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 17, 2023

The decline of the whole genre in the Western markets was caused by a decline in two of the most significant sub-genres: Brawlers and Fighting Games. Overall, in the key Western markets, MMORPGs, Roguelikes, Merge and Puzzle genres largely bucked the recession in terms of revenue. The Brawlers sub-genre is pretty much Brawl Stars.

Mobile Gaming 52

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Sandbox 52

Game Errors

AUGUST 8, 2023

You can compete against other players while surviving traps, completing puzzles, and fighting monsters. However, by taking the proper steps, you can easily get rid of this problem. This PvP dungeon-crawling game is very enjoyable.

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Point and Click PC Graphics Puzzle 52